


Inked

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Prompt Fill, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 14:19:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5669095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic Tattoo prompt: <i>Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, John gets a tattoo in Pegasus, which because of his ATA gene does some interesting things to his skin.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Inked

Regular contact with Earth had brought Atlantis more than just supplies. Additional personnel filled the halls, people who weren’t necessarily vital to the safety of the expedition members but nonetheless filled a void: a barber, a seamstress, teachers who spent time with the children of Pegasus to exchange knowledge.

And then there was Ben. He was one of the new Marines, nothing too showy about him except his tattoos and his almost zen-like attitude even when bullets were flying at his head. Word quickly spread that Ben was just as handy with a tattoo gun as he was with a P-90, and suddenly he was bombarded with requests for body art.

John had initially scoffed at the idea. He’d never been one for body adornment of any kind, be it ink or piercings. But the more fresh ink he saw people flashing around, the less sure he became. Atlantis had changed him, in too many ways to count, and the thought of having some sort of physical representation of that started to become quite appealing.

“You’re an idiot,” Rodney said when John finally drummed up the courage to sit for Ben. 

Still, Rodney was there to keep an eye on proceedings and make sure all the equipment was properly sanitized so that John wouldn’t contract Hep C or tetanus, or any other number of blood-borne diseases that he’d researched and told John about in detail.

As it turned out, Atlantis had changed John in ways that not even Rodney could’ve foreseen. Carson couldn’t say if it was the strength of the ATA gene, or after-effects of the Iratus virus, or any other number of things that John had been exposed to in Pegasus, but his tattoo was different from everyone else’s.

The Ancient letters, tattooed in blue on his wrist (where he could hide the tattoo under his wristband) _glowed_. In the dark, the tattoo was luminescent. In the daylight it seemed to shimmer and shine as if it were crafted from foil paper. Of course everyone wanted to see it, and so John kept it under wraps almost all the time. He didn’t like the attention, or the speculation about why his tattoo was so different.

The only one who got to see it now was Rodney, who’d been so dead set against it in the first place. He’d gently pull the wristband off when they were alone in their quarters, and run his fingers over the glowing letters, tracing each one with the tip of his finger. He’d place a kiss to John’s wrist, before moving up to kiss the man himself, and John didn’t care why the tattoo ink had reacted to his skin the way it had because Rodney thought it was beautiful. And his opinion was the only one that mattered.

As soft kisses turned heated, and John and Rodney’s attention turned to physical pleasure, the tattoo pulsed with blue light as it spelled out the word that matched what was in John’s heart. _Home._


End file.
